Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 125. June 27, 2022 continued . . . .
Quantum Weirdness
Matter or Metaphor?
Einstein’s model of four dimensional space-time was a metaphor picturing the vacuum of Space, and the nothingness of Time, as an imaginary “fabric” stretched across the physical universe. He seemed to view SpaceTime as-if it was the reification of mathematical geometry. For visualization purposes, that invisible fabric is sometimes portrayed in 2D as inter-linked triangles, connected at their corners. And those angular inter-relationships are the very warp & woof of spacetime fabric. Yet, at the vast scale of the universe, the fabric is flexible enough to curve like soft silk. Space-Time, as enformed by gravity, is illustrated in 2D topography as-if it’s a rectangular grid drawn on a warped sheet of rubber. Again, these are merely physical analogies for meta-physical mathe-matical concepts³⁴.
Ball goes on to explain that “spacetime is really just a fabric that we posit to describe how one thing affects another . . . . It’s an emergent property of causal relationships”. But, in the Enformationism thesis, the causal structure of the universe consists of formal relationships³⁵. And, EnFormAction (energy + entropy) is the weaving-shuttle knitting, binding, bending, and even tearing the fragile fabric of space-time. The things we see out there are the forms (designs) embedded in the web of causal threads. Yet, Ball notes that what we “see” is affected by the context — as in Einstein’s Relativity, and in what’s known as the Fractal Scale Factor. Nevermind what that means literally; it’s simply another example of Quantum Weirdness. Ball says “not everything is knowable – because not everything is beable – at once”. Then he sums it up by reference to experiments that showed “non-locality and contextuality seem in fact to be mutually exclusive”.
Here, I’ll note that, in my thesis, the “essence” of Quantum Reality is shape-shifting Information, in it’s causal form as EnFormAction. Generic Information³⁶adapts to context. It changes form when it transforms from Potential to Actual. ‘Potential’ is non-local & a-causal & un-real & meta-physical. By contrast, ‘Actual’ is local & causal & real & physical. Hence, ‘Potential’ is like Holistic Superposition (many possible values), while ‘Actual’ is like an ocean wave condensed into single drop : it’s particular & changeable & local. Aristotle knew nothing of Quantum Theory, but he defined “potential” (potency) and “actual” (action) as fundamental philosophical concepts, whereby we may distinguish Ontological & Epistemological states of being & knowing.
Erwin Schrodinger was so concerned about the incompatibility between atomic Classical physics, and oceanic Quantum physics³⁷, that he proposed a satirical thought experiment to encapsulate the weirdness of the “quantum-classical transition”. Schrodinger’s dead & alive Cat illustrated the perverse logic of wave-particle-duality, in which a point particle of matter is inherently immersed (entangled) in a continuous spread-out field of potential. . . . .
Blog Post 125 continued . . . .
34. Math is Metaphysical : “Platonistic metaphysical accounts incorporate physical objects and mathematical objects as disjoint categories, but require an account of how these two categories of objects interact, which is a vexing philosophical question. One way to handle this issue is to eliminate one of these two categories, and this is precisely what is done in nominalistic accounts, which admit the existence of physical objects but not of mathematical objects. . . . It is reasonable to interpret the Pythagorean meta-physical position as one in which all objects, including physical ones, are purely mathematical , and more recently such thinkers as Tegmark have noted virtues of this position and even advocated it. However, such advocacy is relegated to a tiny minority, and it is the author’s intention to show that mathematical metaphysics is indeed tenable from a philo-sophical perspective, and in fact provides novel solutions to a variety of perennial philosophical problems”. http://shelf1.library.cmu.edu/HSS/2015/a1626190.pdf
35. Formal Relationships Non-physical logical Inter-connections or inter-actions between independent forms (meaningful patterns). One such pattern is the chain of Cause & Effect.
36. Generic Information : Information is Generic in the sense of generating all forms from a formless pool of possibility : the Platonic Forms, or Aristotle’s Potential. All real forms (physical things) are Specific & Particular. Potential forms are General & Statistical.
37. Atomic vs Oceanic : The Atomic ideology is grainy & fragmented, while the Oceanic worldview is unified & holistic. They are incompatible, except in the sense of a complementary YinYang conception.
Space-Time is not a 2D grid and gravity is not a force
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